Moving house dilemma

[RainAgaininGlasgow]

DH and I have been in our West End flat for years but since the arrival of DD last year we've realised we need to move house. I can't handle carrying the pram up 3 flights of stairs any longer!

We are very lucky in that we have a good budget for our new house, but we're really struggling with choosing an area. DH and I both work in the city centre so anywhere within a reasonable commute is possible. Ideally we'd like to stay for 5-10 years so we're trying to figure out primary and possibly secondary schools as well, although it feels a bit mad thinking about DD going to school, shes not even 1 yet!!

If you had a free choice, which area would you move to and why? Or why do you love your current area?

Thanks x

Giffnock area is pretty nice and schools have a good reputation.

What about a ground floor flat with a garden in the west end?

Jordanhill? Or many in the west end go to Bearsden/Milngavie? Look at Westerton Station (near Bearsden/Anniesland) it's tiny but has beautiful houses and a railway station to the city centre. The park behind the houses is protected, so nobody will build there.

Kirkintilloch/Lenzie may be an option too? Lenzie has good schools and a train station.

Helensburgh is further out but again there is a train station and good private school there.

Although overall I think I am west end through and through! I couldn't consider moving! Every time I do I have a small panic attack! Haha!!!

Dowanhill/Hyndland/Broomhill usually have 2 or 3 bed ground floor flats if you have a good budget and you are patient to find them!

Good luck with your search wherever you decide to go

Pollokshields/Shawlands. Fantastic range of houses, leafy streets, great parks, loads of transport links, close to city centre and much better value than the West End.

Shawlands Academy is a fantastic secondary. Shawlands, Langside, BattlefieldPrimaries all seem to be good and feed in to Shawlands. Glendale is also a great primary but you have to a do placing request to go to Shawlands (but they always seem to have the capacity).

Meant to say, we spent 2 years looking north side (Jordanhill, West End, Bearsden, Milngavie, Stathblane) when we were wanting to move from our one bed flat in Shawlands.

We shifted to looking South side and found our current house first night out looking . It's similar to this with a very large garden (front shared, back technically shared with downstairs, split left and right, but in practice dh cuts we share the grass in the middle and we look after our respective flower and veg beds and have spat ate patios . Think it's currently worth about £350k (we bought ours 15 years ago for £136k )

thanks all! We've seen a few places in Pollokshields/Dumbreck that we like but i was worried about schools and ideally we'd like to stay for long enough to get DD into a good secondary so good to know about Shawlands Academy.

we started looking in Bearsden/Milngavie but we're not having much luck so far. same with Jordanhill. we just missed out on one there in January and nothing else has come up since. DH really wants a garage mancave so that limits us a bit and we've kind of had enough of flats although there are some lovely ones in Hyndland etc.

I have to say I couldn't be happier with Shawlands Academy. Ds is both very bright/academic and very sporty and the school seems to encourage both aspects, with high aspirations for everyone.

We love living in Pollokshields.

Everyone I know who lived in Glasgow moved out to suburbs for the schools Bearsden/Clarkston/Newton Mearns
Jordanhill
The only people who stayed took the private route

I've gone the opposite direction: lived in Bearsden/Milngavie (went to Bearsden Academy before going to St Andrews Uni) but now live within Glasgow - and ds is at a good Glasgow state school.

He is on course to get 8 good Nat 5s next year and as long as his attitude stays good (no reason to expect that it won't), he'll get 5 good Highers the following year.

At the moment he's planning to go to Uni in NZ as he wants to play rugby there. That may well change

That's great As a proud Glaswegian it always depresses me to read the league tables My old school fares very badly Hopefully things are on the up

I know someone who teaches at Kirky High and he reckons that is on the up but Lenzie Academy is going downhill. Its so hard to tell what it'll be like in another 5 to 10 yrs time though!

prettybird What are the nurseries like Southside?

Don't really know - ds is now 14! We used a childminder when he was wee (literally the house next door! ). We went to the council nursery on Nithsdale Road for the year before he went to primary school and we were very happy with the place. He did mornings in the nursery and afternoons at the childminder (I worked ft - fortunately dh worked from home so was able to pick up at lunch time to drop off at the childminder)

I've heard mixed reports mostly bad about Heritage House (I think it is a Care Share Nursery) on Albert Drive. They never got back to me when I enquired about a nursery place and in retrospect I was quite glad.

Neighbours downstairs (their youngest is now in P3) used Newark Nursery but GCC shut that (Nithsdale was also unde threat but was reprieved) and consolidated into the Pollokshields Early Years Centre (Melville Street?). Neighbour across the road uses that and I think she's happy but I've never really talked in detail with her about it.

What about Houston or Bridge of Weir
Primary schools are great and I think Gryffe High still rates highly in the tables. Locally people used to move specifically to get in the catchment area but it's been extended now.

City centre is only about 25 mins away on the Express buses or Johnstone station is 10 mins away

Thanks again, I will have a look at Houston/Bridge of Weir too. i don't know that area at all although my hairdresser told me Kilmacolm is nice, but it looks like the traffic could be slow?

East Ren always popular.

Good range of homes for various budgets but they sell quickly as there's a bit of a scrum to get in for school catchment places.

You can't go far wrong with Clarkston/giffnock/Netherlee/waterfoot/carmunnock. Most houses built with garages as well if that's a clincher.

This was issued yesterday. Definitely not the be all and end all but might be useful?

Secondary exam stats

thanks Rip. we're off to do some research on Clarkston tomorrow. I'm still a westender at heart though so its hard!

we saw a lovely house in jordanhill this week but i don't know if its worth even putting in an offer as i get the impression if you don't register DC at birth they aren't going to get in anyway, so why pay the premium if you can't use the school?

still feel crazy basing house decisions on schools when DD is only 7 months!!

I'm in South Lanarkshire so I'm no help to you but my colleague at work went to Jordanhill. When her sister had her kids they had the form ready and filled in baby's name and handed it in asap after birth. I thought she was kidding on. I've never ever heard the like.

Gryffe High in Houston has been top now in the area for years. It's nice and central. 10 mins to the airport. 15 mins to Braehead shopping centre. 25 to Glasgow and within easy travelling to the Ayrshire coasts and Loch Lomond.

The tables certainly are not the whole story but they are a factor When looking at them it is clear why so many people move to Clarkston Bearsden etc Individual children can of course still do very well in Glasgow schools There are different criteria for Jordanhill I would check with the school but at one time you did have to be living in the area when the child was born Mad as that sounds !